/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45494122/2007_09_simplyverabedding.0.jpg)
Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Maybe our expectations were too high. Maybe Vera Wang was stretched too thin. Maybe Kohl's execs interfered too much in the design process. Whatever the cause, we are sad to report that the Simply Vera collection for Kohl's is truly bad. Almost unbelievably so. Upon entering the Kohl's in Jersey City, we first noticed the designer's sleepwear (verdict: boring, standard). The little bedding that they had in stock was nothing groundbreaking, but it wasn't horrible either. And then, we descended to the ground floor of the store and took a look at the accessories and the clothes.
Boom! Look at those (also available in black). Two words: not. good.
Okay, okay, these are a bit better. Of course, they are not real leather, but we make concessions. The large bags pictured here are $79.
Belts. And now we move on to...
The clothes! Oh the clothes. We understand now why Kohl's was so incredibly nervous about this collection. The first thing we gravitated towards was this coat, which online, looks amazing. It is not. First, for $128 at Kohl's, you might expect the item to be lined. Nope. The fabric hangs, dumpy and mumsy, upon your frame and cannot be rescued by the thin little belt. There were also those car coats, which are much shinier in person (a bad thing), bootcut stretch pants in khaki and black that looked like the ones we bought from the Gap in high school, loose sweaters with bejewled buttons, and an assortment of long dresses that again, just weren't flattering on.
We had high hopes for this plaid top, but it was shapeless and unflattering. It also felt like it was made of bathing suit material.
One of the relatively nice items we found. This little jacket was almost worth $78, but not quite.
The one piece we did buy was this long sleeve modal and silk t-shirt for $34. We were surprised at how nice this looked and felt, compared to the rest of the clothing. If you buy anything, buy this. Overall, aside from the disappointing clothing, we had a lot of trouble wrapping our heads around the pricing. Everything was way too expensive. And, it pains us to type this, but you'd be best advised to take your money elsewhere.
· Simply Veravenous: Vera Wang's Designs Hit Kohls.com [Racked]
· Thom Browne And Vera Wang's Lower-Priced Goods To Hit Stores In Less Than Two Weeks [Racked]
· Simply Veravenous: Prices for Vera Wang's Kohl's Collection Top Out At $150 [Racked]
· RackedWire: Kohl's Refuses To Talk To The Press About Simply Vera & More! [Racked]